


Curio

by Argyle



Category: Alice (2009)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-16
Updated: 2011-06-16
Packaged: 2017-10-20 11:44:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/212449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Argyle/pseuds/Argyle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are some things Hatter can't do without.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Curio

Hatter knows he really wasn't supposed to bring anything over to Alice's world -- his own presence is incongruous enough. But simply put, there are some things he can't do without.

For one, his Snicker-Snack. Which is this: a top of the line, all-in-one toast butterer, tea steeper, and manticore deterrent, for there's nothing manticore like better than a bit of Darjeeling with something to dip in it. The Queen, ever a buzzkill, had outlawed such contraptions some years ago, so for all Hatter knew, the thing was the last one in existence. Which made it something of a collector's item.

"Valuable?" Alice says, turning it over in her hands. It's sterling on one side, teak on the other, and not a little heavy.

It's palm-sized, but also larger within. Hatter delicately presses an etched-in button on the side, and out swing six seven-foot-long arms, immediately scrambling for work. And with no bread on hand, they dart for Alice's writing desk to slather ink over her diary and overturn tulips to dip them in their vase.

Hatter grimaces. "A little... Um. Buggy?"

The Snicker-Snack begins to burble.

"Not a manticore in sight," says Alice. Her tulips are now petalless. "So I guess that's good."

She's a trooper, his Alice. A proper legend of the realm. Which is why Hatter also brought a chest, hardly more substantial than a teapot, with a neat, heart-shaped lock holding both halves together. Hatter keeps the key to it in his sock drawer, and the chest itself on the top shelf of a closet, set back enough to obscure it in shadow.

He doesn't need to look into it. He knows well, and can picture in his mind's eye, what it contains.

As follows: three small vials. Smaller than you'd think, and brighter than you'd fancy, labeled from left to right 'Dauntlessness,' 'Discretion,' and 'Wisdom.'

Of course he never _intends_ to use them. Not in any premeditated capacity. But nor will he ever allow himself to go without the things Alice expects of him.

Hatter is nothing if not always prepared.


End file.
